Chemical telegraph



(No Model.) 7 Y 'T.VP. TAYLOR.

OHEMIGAL-TELEGRABHL No. 289,173. Patented Nov. .27, 1883.

C I L 4 L ATTEST; QINVENTUR:

@af g u. Pma Mum w. Wuhhgivm an 'j PATENT Z'I'FFICEO THEODDRE F. TAYLOR, DI BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

CHEMICAL TELEGRAPH.

, S9ECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 289,173, dated November 27, 1883,

Application filed December 22, 1592. No model.)

I To all 1072,0722, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THEODORFS F. TAYLOR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State l per, it being interposed in the circuit and gradually drawn along in contact with two opposite terminals or electrodes; or the recording may be accomplished by the movements of apolarized relay of the Siemens or Hughes pattern, or any other suitable auto matic recording-instrument.

The advantage of a successful use of automatic telcgraphy is the capacity it gives one wire over the ordinary Morse. A successful use of automatic means anywhere from two hundred to two thousand words, against twenty-five to thirty by Morse and hand manipulation per minute. The great drawback to successful use of automatic has been tailings, as it is technically calledthat is, the

message, instead of being received in clear,

well-defined marks, thus is run together in one line, thus Tailings are due to retardation of discharge of the linesthat is, it takes several times as long for a. line to discharge as it does to charge. To obviate or remedy tailings retardation, many plans have been tried-the magnet in the shunt at the receiver by Edison, the overflow-damthat is, a leak to ground through resistances of Little, and many others which might be cited. It is also well known that the speed or rapidity of succession with which consecutive signals can be sent over a telegraph-line is limited by the effects of electrostatic induction, and therefore a rapid and reliable means of clearing the line of its static charge has long been a great desideratum in telegraphic systems requiring rapidly-successive impulses-as in chemical telegraphy-and especially in systems of that class in which the recorder is required to produce a facsimile of the transmitted message. To remedy these defects in automatic systems, I have made use of the known law that the times of discharge of lines (other conditions being equal) vary as the square of the proportional lengths. That is, given a line one thousand miles long and one second as the time of discharge of a momentary impulse, under same conditions if line he five hundred miles long the time of discharge will be only one quarter of a second. Of course in these illustrations it is to be un derstood that the times are greatly exaggerated. Thus to work along line automatically and economically I take advantage of the law, dividing the line physically or materially into sections connected electrically, or, rather, for electrical action, by condensers. For example, a line two hundred miles long will require four times as long to discharge as a line of one hundred miles. N ow, if we divide such a line into two equal sections each short section' will require but one-fourth the time the long line did in dischargingthat is, the square root of four, which is two, divided. by the number of sections, (two,) equal one, being one-fourth of four, the time of the long line. A line three hundred miles long requires nine times as long to discharge as a line of one hundred miles, and if divided into three equal sections each section would require a time proportionately equal to the square root of nine, which is three, divided by the number of sections, which is three, thus giving onethat is, one-ninth the time required for the long line.

It is a further object of my invention to reduce the time required for discharging a line by causing a reverse current to automatically succeed a recording-current, this being accomplished by utilizing for the purpose the reverse currents which result from the charge and discharge of the condensers which I use for connecting the short sections into which I divide amain line.

My invention consists in the combination, with a telegraph-line conductor divided into two approximately-equal sections connected for induction through a condenser, of an electric generator arranged to be connected to the terminal of one of the sections, a transmitter arranged to make and break the connection of the generator with said section, and a chemical receiver and recorder connected with the opposite line-terminal and ground, as will be hereinafter particularly described.

The accompanying drawing illustrates a chemical telegraph constructed according to my invention.

The letters L and L indicate two approximately equal sections of a line-wire, having their adjacent ends connected, respectively, to the opposite sections of a condenser, O.

A is the automatic transmitting-instrument at a station at one end of the line, and B is the chemical receiving and recording apparatus at the other end. These transmitting and recording instruments are connected with the line, battery, and ground in the ordinary manner, and may be of anyof thewell-knowp types used in chemical telegraphy, and need not be particularly described. The condenser has a capacity equal to at least that of one of the sections of the line. Anegative current does not mark the prepared paper of the recorder. If, therefore, the condenser O is charged with positive electricity from the battery E, as is done when the two electrodes of the transmitter come in contact through a perforation in the transmitting -fillet f, the condenser is charged with positive (-l--) electricity higher than that of the earth, and a positive cur rent char es one set of plates of the condenser, attracts a negative charge to the opposite set of plates, and at the same time repels the'positive charge in the wire toward the receiving-station. In fact, the positive charge in condenser separates the two electricities and sets up a pulsatory movement which marks the chemical paper at recording station when it flows from the pen to earth, and clears that portion of the wire, but does not mark when the flow is from earth to the pen.

It will be observed that the pressure of the positive (-t) charge on one section of the con.- denser results in the production of pulsations of positive (-1-) electricity alternately flowing down the receiving-pen, andthcn back to the wire, resulting from the cessation of the positive tension of the condenser and the subsequent release of the induced negative charge on the second set of plates of the condenser. I thus dbviate the necessityof' changing the pole-connections of the battery to line for the purpose of sending a reverse current to clear the line of a static charge.

I am quite well aware that condensers have been interposed in electric circuits, and also that condensers have been connected with the opposite terminals of telegraph-lines, and I do not claim, broadly, such applications of condensers.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is.

The combination, with a telegraph-line conductor divided into two approximately equal sections connected for induction through a condenser, of an electric generator arranged to be connected to one terminal of one of said sections, a transmitter arranged to make and break the connection of the generator with the said section, and a chemical receiver and recorder connected with the opposite line-terminal and ground, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THEODORE F. TAYLOR. [Ls] Witnesses:

WILLIAM J. LARDNER, RICHARD V..Bovn. 

